Nick & Ann to Air Rural Woes Internationally

Set your clocks and tune in to Native America Calling on Native Voice One radio on Monday, August 3 at 9:00 AM Alaska time. (KNBA 90.3 in Anchorage or stream it here.)

Ann will be a guest on the program which is broadcast on 52 public and tribal radio stations, reaching more than 80 rural and urban communities across the US and Canada.

Joining her will be Nicholas Tucker, the rural advocate who brought the struggles his people were facing last winter to national attention.

Nick and Ann became the voices of the rural crisis last winter. Nick came forward and told us how people in his village, Emmonak, were choosing between buying food and fuel with the little cash they had.

Ann then spoke up, saying her neighbors were also struggling, and started a food drive to get food to the families in her village, Nunam Iqua.

The program’s topic is Salmon Ban on the Yukon River

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game has banned commercial fishing for king salmon along the Yukon River and is limiting subsistence fishing. The ban is in response to the state not meeting their treaty agreement with Canada for the past two years to deliver 45,000 kings via the Yukon . But groups of Native fishermen are ignoring the ban – facing possible jail time, heavy fines and equipment seizure. How will village residents make it through another tough winter if they’re not allowed to fish this summer?

Ann and her husband are in Ugashik, Alaska this summer working with our gardening, fishing, chick raising, dynamic wonder woman and tireless contributor Victoria Briggs and her husband Roland at their small salmon processing plant.

Vic spoke at and live blogged from the Northern Pacific Fishing Management Council meeting in the spring and is sure to have valuable input to help Ann prepare for the show.

We hope national exposure to the hardship salmon bycatch in the Pollock industry and Yukon fishing closures is having on the lives of rural Alaskans will capture the attention of agencies outside Alaska.

The White House Rural Tour is due in rural community, Bethel, on August 12. We hope the unique issues facing rural Alaskans will be addressed there.

The program will be available in the archives several hours after it airs.

6 Responses to “Nick & Ann to Air Rural Woes Internationally”

This is a fantastic opportunity for rural Alaskans to speak up loud and clear about salmon issues. It is pertinent that your family is working in a processing plant this summer, giving another example of how rural Alaskans utilize this precious and renewable resource.